Tony Abbott’s behaviour is getting ever more erratic, says senior correspondent Barry Everingham, who wonders who is pulling his strings. 

WAY BACK in the 1960’s, the top selling American author Richard Condon wrote a blockbuster, The Manchurian Candidate, which outlined the story of Raymond Shaw, a highly decorated US solider who had been programmed to kill the President of the USA.

Raymond was the ultimate sleeper whose subconscious was waiting for the trigger that would set off an almost unstoppable chain of events.

Fast forward to today.

Tony Abbott’s behaviour is become more erratic as each day passes.

This week, he has been working himself into a frenzy and is telling lies daily about what he perceives to be the effect of the carbon price on electricity prices.

The guy is out of control which begs the answer to the question – do we have another Raymond Shaw on our hands and if so who is doing the manipulating?

Abbott is in the thrall of Australia’s leading anti-Semite George Pell and the convicted racist media commentator Andrew Bolt.

That pair, along with Alan Jones, Ray Hadley and Rupert Murdoch’s The Australian newspaper are paranoid about Julia Gillard and getting rid of her and her Government.

They will stop at nothing — but have they overstepped the mark in dealing with our Antipodean Raymond?

There are rumblings inside the Liberal Party; the moderates are appalled by Abbott’s paranoia and Turnbull and some of his followers are on the march.

This week, Malcolm excelled himself on Lateline when being interviewed by Steve Kinnane about the late Robert Hughes. Turnbull was erudite, measured, calm, intelligent when talking about his friend, and incidentally, his uncle by marriage.

It was a performance Abbott is totally incapable of delivering and all members of the Parliamentary Liberal Party should download it to see what a real leader is capable of.

Earlier in the week on ABC’s Q&A, we should be most grateful for Craig Emerson, who reminded us about just what troglodytes in the Liberal Party Abbott is most attracted.

When George Brandis SC (he loves his full moniker) started on members of the ALP and allegations of foul and disrespectful behaviour, Emerson recalled Bronwyn Bishop and the dreadful Sophie Mirabella being the only women who stood under the disgusting banner in the grounds of Parliament  House which referred to Gillard as “Brown’s bitch”.

Now those of us who know Bishop were surprised she would demean herself in such a manner — she should be wise and experienced enough to have known better.

Mirabella, that latter day Pauline Hanson, has all the manners, style and charm of the barnyard and wouldn’t have known better — but the point is Bishop, who is well passed her use by date, and Mirabella are both in line of ministries in any Abbott government.

Malcolm Turnbull, to his credit, would wear or promote neither.

That is why we need to get to the bottom of the brainwashing of Abbott by what can only be described as sinister forces who want Australia ruined and who want the return of WorkChoices in all its anti-society, anti-democracy and anti-worker content.

Under Abbott, any chance of an Australian Republic will vanish, education will be turned upside down, health services denigrated and the fabric of Australian society, in its present form, will be shredded.

Our own Raymond Shaw is being manipulated; witness the idiot he made of  himself and our country in China as he marched over a path of eggshells, as though on his way  to a boxing match.

For Abbott and his manipulators, the advent of Campbell Newman in Queensland must be regarded as a Godsend — they now have a blueprint to refine and expand.

We can only hope the trigger that will set off Raymond Abbott is disconnected before it’s too late.

The Manchurian Tony Abbott